No. 85.] , 47 



DR. LEE'S REPORT ON AGRICULTURE. 



The following report from the committee on agriculture, to "whom 

 was referred so much of the Governor's Message as relates to that 

 subject, was submitted to the House of Assembly by Mr. D. Lee, on 

 the 20th March, 1845: 



Speaking of agriculture the Governor says: "The interest in- 

 volved is not merely the most important committed to our charge, but 

 more important than all others." 



This is no more than a just appreciation of that portion of the pub- 

 lic interests committed by the House to the charge of your committee. 

 Happy shall we be if any thing we can say or do shall serve to lessen 

 the hard work now expended in producing a pound of wool, a firkin 

 of butter, or a bushel of wheat. 



Agriculture is a subject that public men are far more inclined to 

 praise than to aid by any legislative enactments. However others 

 may regard the interest of rural industry, your committee believe that, 

 while legislating for half a million of farmers, we owe them some- 

 thing more than empty commendation, something better than a heart- 

 less lip service. 



It is known to all that no class in the community give so much 

 muscular toil for $100 as do the common field laborers in the State 

 of New-York. The hard work of skillful farmers is bought and sold 

 at nine or ten dollars a month, and twelve hours' toil is cheerfully 

 performed each day. But the mechanic, the banker, the merchant, 

 the broker, or the professional gentleman, thinks his service very 

 poorly rewarded if he do not receive three or four times that sum. 



If a man whose whole life is devoted to the cultivation of the 

 earth, does not and cannot earn so much as the merchant, the physician 

 or the lawyer, in the course of a year, pray tell us what is the cause 

 of this inability, that wise legislation may remove it. And if the ag- 

 riculturist does earn as much as any non-producer in the State, then 

 please inform us how it happens that an experienced farmer must sell 

 his labor at $120 a year, when he cannot hire one experienced in the 

 mysteries of law or medicine for less than $1,000 a year. 



Surely the toiling husbandman needs, if he does not deserve, as many 

 good meals, as much good clothing and as fine a house as one that merely 

 studies to acquire, not to produce, the good things of this world. 



